Columbia is pushing forward with its Manhattanville campus expansion, and the newly elected chair of Harlem’s community board says that he fully supports it—marking a clear shift in the board’s stance on the project.
As the University breaks ground in demolition near 125th Street, newly elected Community Board 9 Chair Larry English has spent the first few months of his job rethinking the way the board interacts with its institutional neighbor.
“Our position is that Columbia has been given the authority to move forward with the project, and you need only walk past the construction site to understand that,” English said in a recent interview while walking the streets of the Manhattanville neighborhood just north of 125th Street and east of 12th Avenue, where the University is making headway with its 17-acre expansion. “I’m in the mindset right now that it’s going to be built.”
Recently, though, English has faced some backlash from a handful of neighborhood residents in the local Coalition to Preserve Community group, who, in a letter sent earlier this month, questioned the new chair and his belief that a partnership with the University is the most pragmatic solution.
Among his most recent statements on the University—which have drawn scrutiny at several community board meetings—was that Columbia’s presence in the neighborhood would be beneficial from a business perspective.
“In West Harlem right now and in Harlem in general, there is not a vibrant, entrepreneurial, economic class, and that is crucial to everyone living in West Harlem,” English said in an interview in October.
English’s approach marks a transition in the board’s stance on the project. In May 2009, CB9 voted unanimously for its delegates on the West Harlem Local Development Corporation to turn down Columbia’s community benefits agreement for Manhattanville.
The benefits agreement is the product of years-long negotiations by neighborhood representatives on the LDC, an ad hoc group formed in 2005 to negotiate the contract that ultimately committed University funds to affordable housing, the building of a public school, and support for other local initiatives.
CB9’s rejection—which did not stop the LDC and the University trustees from signing the agreement later that month—marked a direct clash between the board and a central component of Columbia’s plan.
“Columbia is a world-class institution operating in one of the most diverse cities in the world, headquartered in one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the world,” English, who replaced previous chair Pat Jones earlier this fall, said. “It’s [the expansion] a natural extension of that.”
In response to Columbia’s 2004 rezoning proposal to the city, CB9 passed its own alternative plan, which included a ban on eminent domain—another noteworthy disagreement between the University and the board.
English, though, said that productive collaboration between CB9 and Columbia, as the project’s construction moves forward, is key.
“Manhattan is an island and we have to live and work together—it’s not like you’re in the suburbs and you never see other,” English said, adding that it seems the University is aware that it “now has a moral duty to help … West Harlem continue to grow.”
As a lawyer and fairly recent member of the board—he has sat for roughly two and a half years on CB9, which historically has had a low turnover rate—English said that he was in a good place to address the new challenges and opportunities facing West Harlem.
“For the next five years, the community is going to have to live with some disruption form the project, and so far I’m confident that they [the University] will live by what they said,” he said, responding to recent complaints that have arisen at CB9 over the impacts of ongoing construction. He added that he was pleased with the University’s team’s presentation of different steps being taken to address construction concerns such as rat control.
Neighborhood residents have continued to raise concerns over construction disturbances, but to English, it’s a natural part of New York City life. “Manhattan is basically a large construction site, so all New Yorkers have to deal with that.”
But Tom DeMott, CC ’80 and a founder of the Coalition to Preserve Community, an activist group opposed to the expansion, said CB9’s political turnaround doesn’t reflect the views of its constituents.
“To me, that’s political failure,” DeMott said at a CPC meeting last week. “That’s failure to see when you should be a strong advocate for the community.”
He said that members of CPC have lost faith in CB9.
“We’re still in communication with CB9, but we’re not spending all our time going to all those meetings,” he said. “It’s not likely CB9 will be as powerful as it once was.”
Despite these claims, English said he is confident that Columbia will follow through with its agreement—the University continues to pledge that it devotes 35 percent of its contract spending for Manhattanville to minority-, women-, or locally-owned firms.
“We’re developing a close working relationship. I think they have a contractual commitment as well as a moral commitment,” English said of the University’s employment opportunities.
Despite friction over the last several years, English said it’s time to move forward.
“Obviously, the last four years caused a lot of tension between the Columbia and the community, but as a community board, we’ve ruled that we’re turning the page. We don’t want to do anything that’s gonna inhibit the project.”
COMMENTS
Comments will be moderated in accordance with our comment policy